November 2005

... nuclear world, 60 years of fissile proliferation; US, supreme court of last resort; Russia from the inside; Bolivia, South America’s first indigenous president? Sierra Leone’s special court; Mauritania after the coup... plus Milan Kundera on Juan Goytisolo; the internet, is what’s yours mine? Who can own the soul of a culture? Europe as seen from the Bosphorus... and more...

THE second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society runs in Tunis later this month. Its first phase, convened by the United Nations and organised by the International Telecommunication Union, was held in Geneva in December 2003 and focused on the digital divide (1). The Tunis summit’s main theme is how to find a more democratic regulation system for the internet.
The internet was invented in the United States during the cold war. The Pentagon wanted to set up a communication (...)

After recent provocative statements from Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency will discuss Iran’s nuclear programme again this month, and could decide to report the country to the UN Security Council. But is US pressure on Iran about suspected weapons programmes, or is it really about securing a western monopoly on nuclear energy?

The original intention in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons was less the preservation of the world from nuclear destruction than the retention of military supremacy for those states that had it already, plus a few chosen allies. What will happen now?

President George Bush is intent on changing the long-term direction of the US Supreme Court. His candidate as its president, John Roberts, was confirmed by the Senate, but his next nomination, White House lawyer Harriet Miers, was forced to withdraw under attack from his core supporters. Bush’s substitute nominee is conservative Samuel Alito.

Russian culture is on show in an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and at the 20th Europalia festival in Brussels, which was opened by President Vladimir Putin. But the realities of Russia now undermine his image-building efforts more than any hostile propaganda.

Bolivians will go to the polls on 4 December - unless a last-minute ploy by the right leads to a postponement - in what will be a historic general election. For despite chronic divisions and rivalries, Bolivia’s social movements are in a position to take power and make Evo Morales South America’s first indigenous president.

Mauritania’s transitional power, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, insists that it wants to restore legitimate government and is in contact with the African Union and western governments. Will the council’s 17 members succeed in introducing democracy?

The Special Court established by the United Nations in Freetown is trying 11 former rebels from the civil war that ravaged Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2001. The UN mission, tarnished by the sexual exploitation of refugees, will leave the country in a fragile state of peace next month.

A large majority of countries last month approved a Unesco motion that seeks to counter the commercial treatment of cultural goods as promoted by the World Trade Organisation. Now the motion must be ratified by at least 30 countries - and implemented.

The writer Juan Goytisolo, who was born in Barcelona in 1931, now divides his time between Marrakech and Paris. He has written a dozen novels, considered among the best fiction in Spanish in the 20th century, and two previous volumes of memoirs. Here he explains his new work.

Telon de Boca, meaning the fall of the curtain, is the name of Juan Goytisolo’s new ‘autobiographical fiction’, a memoir of his life after the death of his wife, of his lost memories of the past and new-found pleasure in the present. Here he and other writers discuss the work.